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Big Buick engine
sports gas Dominator and internals from
TA Performance in Scottsdale, Arizona, a
leading Buick racing and hi-po parts supplier.
TA Performance also makes a well-known product,
a billet girdle and cover for 12-bolt rears
and others. |
All of his hard parts came from TA Performance
and Mike Tomaszewski of Scottsdale, who owns
the big Buick parts place. TA Performance, you
may remember, is the company that makes rear
end covers and girdles for GM 12-bolt rear ends
("Cover your Assets" is its motto). While Tomaszewski
was finishing the engine, Holman was rounded
up GSX trim and interior stuff, with Hi Tech
Transmissions of Loganville and Gerald Whittley
and Son, a Covington contractor, coming on board
as sponsors.
It took a year to convert the Skylark over
to a GSX, but Holman's Collector Cars paint
and body had no trouble tackling the changeover.
He even mixed up the special yellow paint himself.
| Mike
poses in front of the Buick "Stage 3" emblem
on the hood scoop. |
Patriotic
trunk area is the cleanest we've seen, with
fuel cell, batteries and fuel pump accessible. |
The Buick's heads, intake, camshaft and other
engine basics came from TA Performance and Mike
Tomaszewski, with Brad Howard of Gainesville,
Georgia doing the machine work.
The Buick's .038-over 464-inch engine, Holman's
"baby" motor, sports a TA Performance intake,
Stage III tall port heads modified by TA Performance,
and solid lifter camshaft ground per TA Performance
specs made for those heads. "No one else has
tried it, so I'm the guinea pig on the camshaft,"
Mike says. Pistons are JE 12.5-to-1s flowing
racing gas through them, and rods are also TA
Performance Sportsman models. The engine uses
a stock crank and pan, with Hedman Hedders of
Alpharetta, Georgia providing the headers. Carb
is a Dominator, the Buick's trans is a TH-400
with reverse pattern built by Hi Tech Transmissions,
with an ATI Treemaster converter and a Cheetah
shifter. Rear end is a Moser 12-bolt rear end
with 4.33 gearing, narrowed by David Shepherd
of Covington, Georgia. Slicks are Mickey Thompson
14.5x32x15s on Weld Wheels. Gauges are all Auto
Meter.
Holman checks the air
pressure on his Buick. Tires are Mickey Thompson,
wheels Weld.
The GSX could be faster. "Mike Tomaszewski
and myself are building a 525-inch engine with
a sheet metal intake and two carburetors by
the end of the year. We're hoping for low 9s,
high 8s," Holman said. Imagine THAT Buick then.
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